Every athlete enters a competition hoping to deliver their absolute best performance – especially when titles or championships are on the line. As the women's cross country season winds down, Chico State's Rebekah Bahra appears to have peaked at just the right time. Following her seventh place finish in the CCAA Women's Cross Country Championships, the sophomore from Anaheim placed 11th Saturday at the NCAA West Regionals to help the Wildcats advance to the NCAA Championships for the 14th straight season. Bahra's performance earned not only All-West Region honors but also the Wildcat of the Week award.
Bahra clocked in at 22:37 on the six-kilometer course Saturday, besting her CCAA Championships time by four seconds. Her 11th place finish in the NCAA West Regional was a six-notch jump from a year ago, when she came in 17th as a freshman at the 2012 West Regionals.
With two straight All-West Region performances, Bahra has positioned herself to join Sarah Montez as the only Chico State runners to win four consecutive All-West Region awards.
Bahra posted two top 10 finishes in her first three races of the 2013 season (seventh at the CCAA Championships and eighth at October's Triton Classic) before her 11th place showing Saturday in Spokane, Wash.
Bahra and the Chico State women's cross country team now prepares for its final competition of the season: the NCAA Championships, taking place Saturday, Nov. 23 at the Plants Ferry Athletic Complex in Spokane.
